Tag Archives: shingles

I Spoke Too Soon

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Do you remember yesterday and me saying “Meanwhile, I have a sore spot on the arm which had the flu vaccine and no reaction on the shingles arm. Sometimes I really am disappointed in the lack of drama that attends all this vaccination.” ?

Well you can cancel that. About two hours after I wrote it the shingles arm started to ache. It still does. So does my shoulder. It’s rather annoying, particularly as I thought I’d got away with it. Such, as they say, is life. And in two months I can do it all again.

By then I will have forgotten all about the reaction. I’ve just been reding random posts that WP keeps suggesting for me, and I find that I did have a rection to one of my Covid boosters. I’d forgotten all about it and honestly didn’t think I’d had a reaction anyone.

Julia has gone to Norwich for a few days to see Number One Son. She has primed me for all eventualities and seems to have forgotten that I lived on my own for 12 years before I got married. I married her because I fell in love at first sight, not because I needed someone to organise my life.

In fact there is a distressing tendency for my life to become less organised when she gets involved. I’m a dull plodder who believes in minimal effort and the benefits of repetition. Take tonight, I’m going to have fish fingers, potato wedges and mushy peas.

Tomorrow, as I will still have half a pack of fish fingers left, I will be having fish fingers, potato wedges and mushy peas. It’s simple, it’s delicious and it’s cheap. And it allows me to cut and paste. However, Julia would never allow me to eat the same thing twice. She wants different food each day. I’ve never understood why.

I will end this by saying that although I am missing her, I’m also looking forwards to a couple of nights of running my life like I want – repetitive nursey food, reduced personal hygiene (I really don’t see why I need a clean shirt every day, for instance), and watching Decline and Fall (she wasn’t keen).

L-R: No 2 Son, Julia, Number 1 Son. You could probably have worked that out if I’d just have pointed out Number 2 Son. By deduction the other one must be Number 1 and the midget in the middle must be Julia.

Trouble at the Surgery

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I went fro my shingles vaccination today, The automatic board for booking in wasn’t working and the man in front of me was arguing with the receptionist in broken English. This isn’t a criticism, his command of the language was far better than anything I could  manage in another language. However, it did prolong the discussion. He was trying to book an appointment for a female family member who didn’t speak English and the receptionist was booking a translator. He said he was able to translate, and I’m sure he was. Unfortunately nobody would be able to tell what he was saying and it seems there is a growing problem with doctors saying one thing and family members translating it to suit their requirements.  That’s why the practice now books impartial translators as a matter of course. I presume it isn’t cheap, but it is necessary. So that’s another rabbit hole for the NHS budget.

Meanwhile, I was called through for my shingles vaccination. Then I ws told I probably didn’t qualify. It seems the TV advert is not 100% accurate and there are plenty of people in the age group who don’t actually qualify. When they say “immuno-supressed” on the advert, they are talking about people on chemotherapy and with HIV, that sort of level.

She broke the news gently that she didn’t think I would qualify and we went through all the parameters. It ws a no. Then I pointed out that I’m counted as immuno-suppressed for some purposes because of the methotrexate and she looked that up for me. If you take up 8 tablets a week you don’t qualify for vaccination. If you take ten, you do. Bingo! Because I take 10, I can be vaccinated. This, the nurse tells me, is a Good Thing. Two tint tablets, which are almost too small to grasp, are the difference.

It’s a mixed blessing, because it tells me I am ill enough to cross a threshold . . .

But I got my vaccine, so I’m happy with that. It took two minutes for vaccinations and 20 minutes to do the checking. I will let others ponder the efficiency of  the system, as Julia has just made tea and toast (with marmalade) and I feel this post needs to end.

Selfie in a teapot

Early Morning Blood Test

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After writing the post on rejection last night I wrote another post ready for today and then wrote two haibun. I still have the completed post ready to go, but am going to write this first as  I’m up early and I’m alert.

This was due to having a 7.00 blood test appointment. To get ready for that I drank two lots of water and did a couple of dozen squats to get the blood moving. The form was not good, and I had to hang on to the furniture to do them but when the needle went in I bled for Britain. There was so much blood it was actually filling the tube and there was extra running down my arm. I was so alert by that time that I booked myself in for a shingles vaccination in a couple of weeks. I could have had it next week but two weeks allows me to get a Wednesday appointment and  will probably synchronise with my next blood test.

Anyway, I wasn’t going to write about blood tests or vaccinations, I was intending to write about rejections. I have, as you know, been rejected twice by haiku magazines. One short-listed three, so I used the remaining seven as the basis for my next submission. With the second return I and another rejection of five others, I have about 20 haiku hanging about.

Now, there are two ways to write haibun. One, which I normally do, is to write the prose then write one or two haiku to fit. It can be tricky but I find it natural and never even realised there was another way until I read an article  The other way, recommended by some very good writers, is to write the haiku first then write the prose to suit. Last night, using three of the returned haiku, I wrote two haibun. It didn’t feel quite right but I’m sure I could get used to it. The big advantage is that by the time you get to the end of the prose you know you already have the haiku ready and the poem is finished. Doing it my normal way it can take me a month to write the haiku and complete the piece. And the best bit – I have a use for many of my returned haiku!

When you have lemons, as they say, make lemonade.

My Orange Parker Pen